MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) A suspect shot and wounded three people, including two students, after a high school basketball game in western Michigan before a sheriff's deputy shot and wounded him, authorities said.
The attack happened outside of Muskegon Heights High School after a game between its varsity boys team and that of Grand Rapids' Ottawa Hills High School. Officers were stationed in the parking lot before the game because they had been warned about the possibility of a dispute, which may have started last week in Grand Rapids, authorities said.
Muskegon Heights' coach, Dalrecus Stewart, told The Muskegon Chronicle that his players had just left the gymnasium when the shooting started. He said they ''heard commotion'' as they wrapped up a postgame prayer.
Muskegon Heights' interim police chief, Joseph E. Thomas Jr., said the suspect apparently shot the three victims - two females and a male - near the school and then ran toward the building, where he encountered a sheriff's deputy. He said the deputy ordered the suspect to drop his weapon and shot him when he refused.
Thomas didn't release the suspect's name but said he is from the Grand Rapids area. The prosecutor's office plans to charge the suspect later Wednesday, WOOD-TV reported.
None of the four who were shot appeared to have life-threatening injuries, said Thomas.
Alena Zachery-Ross, the superintendent of the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System, said in a statement that two victims are Muskegon Heights High School students.
''We are sickened by the acts of violence that occurred outside our school building,'' Zachery-Ross said.
Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler said it appears the deputy acted within policy and state law.
The district canceled classes Wednesday and crisis teams were being put in place to assist students.
